Holocaust survivors' recordings played

University of Akron multimedia producer Jamie Newell talks about the wire recorder he made from scrounged parts that plays lost songs of concentration camp survivors.
University of Akron multimedia producer Jamie Newell talks about the wire recorder he made from scrounged parts that plays lost songs of concentration camp survivors.

AKRON, Ohio -- Wire recordings of Holocaust survivors singing melodies at a refugee camp in France in 1946 are being heard for the first time in decades, thanks to university employees in Ohio who pieced together a device to listen to them.

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Akron Beacon Journal via AP/ PHIL MASTURZO

A wire reel of recordings at the University of Akron contains six songs sung by Holocaust survivors.

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Akron Beacon Journal via AP/PHIL MASTURZO

A book about David Boder’s recordings of concentration camp survivors sits next to one of his wire recorders on display at the University of Akron’s Center for History of Psychology in Akron, Ohio.

University of Akron officials say the six songs were sung by survivors in Henonville, France, for psychologist David Boder, who was among the first to record Holocaust survivors telling their stories during the 1940s. He recorded on steel wire, capturing the melodies with lyrics in Yiddish and German.

"Dr. Boder was determined to give the survivors a voice," said David Baker, a University of Akron professor of psychology and executive director of the Center for the History of Psychology. "Dr. Boder is credited with being the first person to record testimony of Holocaust survivors."

Boder conducted numerous interviews on wire recorders, which were considered state-of-the-art equipment at the time. He also recorded religious services, folk songs and counseling sessions in addition to his work with Holocaust survivors.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports that one woman sang melodies that had been sung in a Polish ghetto and a forced-labor camp.

Some of Boder's spools were donated to the university in the 1960s and archived, but the content wasn't discovered until a recent project to digitize the recordings.

"It's the most significant discovery from our collections in our 52-year history," Baker said. "That we could give the world the melody to a song sung by those sentenced to their death through forced labor during one of the most unspeakable horrors and trauma of the 20th century is remarkable."

Boder's recordings are also held in the Library of Congress and at UCLA in California. The University of Akron has shared its collection with the national Holocaust Museum in Washington.

Religion on 02/11/2017

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